Steve Linick is an American attorney and career State Department official who served as Inspector General of the Department of State and led the Office of Inspector General of the Department of State.

According to Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-NY), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, that is the real reason behind Linick’s firing. “This firing is the outrageous act of a president trying to protect one of his most loyal supporters, the Secretary of State, from accountability,” Eliot Engel said in a statement.

“I have learned that the Office of the Inspector General had opened an investigation into Secretary Pompeo. Mr. Linick’s firing amid such a probe strongly suggests that this is an unlawful act of retaliation.” Engel criticized the President, accusing him of “believing that he is above the law.”

The position, independent in nature because of its supervisory role, will now be held by Stephen Akard, a diplomat close to Vice President Mike Pence, the State Department announced. The removal of Linick, appointed by President Barack Obama, is just the most recent case of a wave of layoffs of inspector-generals ordered by the White House in recent weeks.

Mike Pompeo is an American politician, diplomat, businessman, and attorney who, since April 2018, has served as 70th United States secretary of state. He is a former United States Army officer and was Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from January 2017 until April 2018.

The opposition believes is motivated by a lack of trust by the Republican President. Earlier this month, Trump dismissed Christi Grimm, the Health Department’s deputy inspector general, after she drew up a report on the shortage of medical supplies in hospitals to contain the new coronavirus pandemic.

Prior to the Grimm firing, Michael Atkinson had been shown the door in early April. Earlier, the then-inspector general of Intelligence, was dismissed. He had been responsible for giving the go-ahead to sending a complaint to Congress about a telephone conversation between Trump and the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, a move that had led to the process of impeachment against the US President.

“Let’s be clear: all of these moves are punishment for doing the jobs the law authorizes and requires IGs [inspectors general] to do,” Michael Bromwich, former justice department inspector general, said in a tweet. “This will not end until Congress takes these retaliatory firings seriously. The appointment of a crony of the VP further politicizes jobs that by statute are supposed to be non-partisan. Another important norm defiled,” lamented Bromwich.

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News reporting is my thing. My view of what is happening in our world is colored by my love of history and how the past influences events taking place in the present time. I like reading politics and writing articles. It was said by Geoffrey C. Ward, "Journalism is merely history's first draft." Everyone who writes about what is happening today is indeed, writing a small part of our history.